Infants begin to express simple emotions. (cries when mom leaves, happy when mom enters the room. This allows the infant to grow and learn self-awareness.

Toddlerhood: Toddlers begin to understand their feelings.

Begin to problem solve. ( putting together puzzles)

Begin to understand spatial awareness. Parallel playing.

Early Childhood: In early childhood, children will start learning social skills, which include taking turns with others, sharing things, and understanding others' feelings.

Children will begin to learn to regulate their emotions: calm themselves down and self-soothe when upset.

Toddlers: Supporting self-awareness is vital at this age. Example: The teacher sees John watching his friend building blocks. The teacher goes over to John, takes him to the block area, and begins to build blocks with him beside his friend, who is also building blocks. John is learning parallel play and social skills.

Early Childhood: Children at this stage will begin to engage in pretend play with one another. In the dramatic play area, two students are cooking. One child is doing the prepping of the food, washing their hands putting things in bowls. While the other child is baking the food. They are making "spaghetti." Discussing independence, sharing, and taking turns.

Teachers can encourage self-regulation in their classrooms.

Providing students with visuals of their feelings. Example: Feelings board pictures:

Happy, Sad, Angry, Excited.

Encourage strategies for self-regulation, such as breathing in and breathing out 5- 7 times.

Providing children with an area where they may go and calm down. A calm down area with sensory toys such as poppets, quiet books about feelings. Stress balls to squeeze.

Include likes such as food, favorite songs to soothe them. Does the baby like to be rocked or walked? Have open communication with the parents to aid the caregiver in what is best for the social and emotional development of the infant.

Toddlers: Provide toddlers with a safe, loving environment for them to explore at home.

Playing with your Toddler to encourage independence, self-control, and confidence.

Early Childhood: Encourage children to express themselves through modeling things such as sharing toys, preferred items.

Teach children to care for their belongings by cleaning up after themselves, watching out for others, and helping others.

Palmer, J, 2019. Social and Emotional Development In Early Learning Settings.

Fundamentals of SEL https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/#:~:text=SEL%20is%20the%20process%20through,and%20make%20responsible%20and%20caring